New Photo Friday – Week 16

Happy Friday! If you’re observing Christmas this weekend, I hope you’re ready for the festivities. I’m not really, but it’s going to happen one way or the other. 😉

I mentioned in last week’s post that I would be doing a Santa Claus shoot last weekend and that’s where my picture today comes from, although probably not what you’d expect.

Because we were setting up the facility before sunrise, I was able to snap this shot outside in the parking lot at Lakeview Park where they have a lovely light display all over. I was tickled by this beach volleyball scene with gingerbread people. The volleyballs blink on and off so it appears as though they are going over the net. I shot this, obviously, with a long exposure so all of the volleyballs appear lit in the image except for the fourth, which was burned out.

This is a crop of the original image and I realized when I cropped it that my focus was in the center of the picture, so gingerbread man is sharp but gingerbread girl is slightly blurry. That’s my biggest regret on this image. The beach scene to the right of ginger-boy is sharp, but I removed that to declutter the image.

What I really liked about it: I got the long exposure and the volleyballs all came out lit. I love the reflection in the puddles on the asphalt. And it’s whimsical and fun. Festive for the season. I hope you enjoy it too.

The technical details: I obviously shot this on a tripod. The shutter speed was 4 seconds, ISO 100 and aperture 5.0. I should have used a larger aperture setting and a slower shutter speed to get little miss ginger-girl sharper. I may go back another night or morning and try again. I’ll also frame the picture to only include the volleyball part of the scene.

Next week I’ll have my end of the year lists for reading and a final new photo for the year. I hope you’ll stop by and check everything out. In the mean time, happiest of holidays to you one and all.